


Theories of interdimensional travel

by Mariavc



Series: Interdimensional travel AU [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, a bit of science babble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 11:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6078234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mariavc/pseuds/Mariavc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy wakes up only to find Grant waiting for her and some shocking news from her team, and she needs to get answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Theories of interdimensional travel

**Author's Note:**

> Previously on the interdimensional travel AU: 
> 
> “Look, who’s back” He says, joining them in the room. “I took a quinjet as soon as I heard the news!”
> 
> And she knows that voice, all too well.
> 
> Grant smiles at her “Welcome home”

He’s… he’s just there. All clean shaved and smiling with relief.

And Simmons is smiling back at him. They both look happy and… Grant has tears in his eyes.

She jerks back when he approaches and tries to grab her hand.

“What the… what is he doing here?”

Everybody seems to be quiet all of the sudden. Grant looks at Jemma as if he’s asking for answers.

“Daisy, look at me, are you feeling alright? Are you feeling any pain? Did you hit your head?”

“I’m fine, I just want to know what Ward is doing here!”

“I was just away in a mission. I’m so sorry, baby”

“Whoa… What did you just… “Daisy raises her hand and then looks at Simmons, but she seems to focused on examining her and pointing a light at her eyes and Daisy just pushes her hand away “Stop that, would you?” She takes a deep breath, looks down, looks at Ward’s worried expression “Where am I?”

“You’re home,” He says and reaches for her hand again, this time she lets him, she’s too tired to fight.

Then she sees it, a ring. A wedding band.

“Oh shit”

“It’s probably the stress of the travel, maybe she’s having trouble putting her thoughts in order and-“

“Jemma… I’m fine. I’m sorry. I think there’s been a mistake” She looks at her friend and then at Grant. “I’m not Daisy, I’m not… _your_ Daisy”

“What are you talking about?” Grant asks and squeezes her hand.

She closes her eyes and pulls her hand back “I just had the weirdest couple of days and before that I would have said that it didn’t make any sense but now, I guess it’s possible”

“What’s possible?” Jemma asks.

“Can I talk to you, alone?” Daisy asks Simmons. She’s trying to pick on the differences. She knows she’s at the playground, she recognizes the faces, hell even Lincoln is there.

The scientist nods and then the people from the medical team and Lincoln leave the room. Ward is the last one. He clearly doesn’t want to go.

“I’ll be just a minute. She’ll be fine” Jemma says and squeezes Grant’s wrist with affection. He looks at Daisy one last time and then leaves the room.

“This is messed up” Daisy breathes and sits on the bed, hugging her legs against her chest.

“What?”

“He had a wedding ring…”

“Why yes, off course, just like yo-“ Jemma stops when she doesn’t find a matching ring on Daisy’s hand. “Oh no, did you loose it?”

Daisy sighs, “I don’t have one. Jemma, you’re the smart one. I’m not from around here”

“That doesn’t make any sense” Simmons says and tries to smile but Daisy knows her friend too well, even if this is a different Jemma, Daisy knows when her brain is at work.

Simmons understands. She can put two and two together and if this is not their Daisy that means that they’ve been waiting for months and still know nothing about her counterpart from this world. She can see the gears working in the scientist’s head, the concern in her eyes. “We sent you back…”

“I went back, but apparently there’s no straight timeline. Whatever we did, whatever you did… I just jumped into a different reality, just like your Daisy”

“You’re from a different world,” Simmons concludes.

“Yes. I’m sorry”

“And why would you come here?”

“Actually, I was trying to go back to my people. I was supposed to go to the past, but it didn’t work and then I ended up here”

“Maybe that’s what happened with our Daisy, maybe she’s stuck somewhere…”

“I don’t know. I just know that things are always different. I couldn’t even complete my mission”

“Where you sent to save Steve?”

Daisy frowns “No. I was- Wait… Steve Rogers?”

 

* * *

 

 

“Ok, ok, what’s all this fuzz?” Lance asks, joining the rest of the team in the briefing room with a beer in his hand and looking a little disheveled. “What? I was taking my nap” He says when he earns a disapproving look from Bobbi.

“Daisy’s back” Mack says.

“What? That’s great news!” He replies excitedly “Let’s all get some beers on that, where’s she?”

“Where is Ward?” May interrupts.

“He’s still with Leah” Lincoln says

“It’s probably better that he’s not here”

“Is something wrong? Lincoln told us that she’s saying that she’s not Daisy. Is she ok?” Bobbi asks.

“It’s going to be a little hard to explain” Melinda says and then leaves Fitzsimmons to turn on the holographic projectors.

“Well, she’s fine” Simmons starts “But she’s not actually our Daisy”

“It’s a quantum-mechanical physics theory” Fitz says and points at a hologram of the earth in front of a very confused team “The Everett interpretation says that there could be a number of parallel universes separated from each other by a single, quantum, event” He says as many projections of the earth appear.

“Basically an infinite number of possibilities are real when an event in our pasts happened, or when it didn’t happen. It’s called the many-worlds interpretation because it means that each time that any of us dealt with any given situation every possible outcome happened in a different world”

“Ok, I guess this is enough booze for me” Lance says, leaving his beer on the table.

“It means that everything that could have happened in the past, and didn’t, actually happened in an alternate or parallel reality, with different consequences and leading to a number of different events and so on” Fitz says as the earths on the projection keep duplicating.

“That just means that there’s a world where I didn’t marry you” Bobbi teases.

“And there’s a world where you didn’t divorce me, love” He replies.

“Well, yeah…” Fitz says, “That’s pretty accurate, actually” then one of the earths on the hologram gets highlighted in red. “This is our reality, and Daisy comes from here” He points at another globe and then it’s highlighted in green. “She was supposed to go to the past, like our Daisy, and it worked, but accidentally ended up in a third, different world” A third planet is highlighted in orange. “She landed in the past but discovered that some things were different, just because one small event changed everything”

“We believe that our Daisy went through something similar, she might be somewhere else, that’s why nothing changed”

“And what about this new Daisy?” Lincoln asks.

Fitz and Simmons look at each other “Well, apparently she was sent with the mission to kill Ward” Jemma says and they all hear the murmurs from the members of the team. 

Fitz looks at May, waiting for her approval to reveal the rest of the information. The agent nods. “He was Hydra in her world”

“Blimey!” Lance says “Are we sure that ours isn’t?”

“Hunter!” May scolds him.

“Wait, so they’re not married…” Mack says. “She’s not going to like it when she finds out about the rest”

“How do we know that this is true? How do we know that we can trust her? I mean if something like Ward being Hydra can be different, she might as well be a threat” Bobbi asks.

“I’m going to take care of it personally” May says “We’re going to keep an eye on her”

“And what about Ward?” Mack asks “He’s going to go nuts”

“I’ll handle it. Morse and Hunter, you have a mission and you’ll talk details with agent Hand. I don’t want this to be a distraction”

“Don’t worry ma’am” Lance says and then takes his beer again “I definitely don’t want to be there when the shit hits the fan in here”

May rolls her eyes at that “Go get me Ward” She tells Fitzsimmons and the couple of scientists leave the room.

 

* * *

 

She’s sitting on her bed, bored out of her mind when May knocks on her door. Daisy smiles when she sees her, but May doesn’t seem too happy.

“Daisy?”

“Yep. That’s my name”

“We need to talk”

“Ask away, I’m becoming an expert with this kind of situation”

“Fitzsimmons already explained what happened” May says and then closes the door, locks it “But I need to know about you”

Daisy frowns “You don’t trust me”

“We have been through too much”

“Your Ward is good. That means a lot less people has died over here”

May looks down and takes a moment, she presses her lips together before she speaks again “It wasn’t always like that” She stops but Daisy’s expression just prompts her to continue “Our Ward was Hydra too”

“What? Then why-…how?”

“He made a choice. You got shot and he… he turned against the man that-“

“Garret” Daisy says and May nods “I got shot too” She finishes, placing her hand over her belly, in the place where she knows the scars are.

“Sorry to hear that. After that, Ward came to Coulson and came clean about everything. We had little time to deal with the outcome though. He did warn us about Hydra but it was too late. A lot of people died over here too”

“Did you just forgive him?”

“We didn’t. It was- Daisy… our Daisy, she fought for him, really hard, and she was right about him. After Shield went down we decided to keep it between us, the first team. No one else knows”

“He helped you? What about Garrett?”

“It was complicated, but when it came the time to make a choice, he did it” Melinda sighs, then approaches Daisy’s bed and sits next to her “It was the right call. We all decided to put that behind us and start over. We want it to stay that way”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I need to know who you are”

“I… want to talk to him”

“Not before I’ve cleared you”

“You think that I’m a threat?”

“Our Daisy could be”

“Because of the things she can do?” Daisy says and then she makes the bed shake slightly, it’s barely noticeable but it earns her a surprised look from May. “She and I, we’re the same. Shield took me in, and for some reason I’m still sane after all the crazy stuff that I’ve seen but I’m not a threat”

“I still don’t know if it’s a good idea. It’s been months and we’ve barely recovered-“

“You think she’s dead?”

“I don’t know. We have to be prepared to accept the truth. There’s no way to know”

“Well, I know that you guys would never give up”

May finally smiles, her lips barely curve up but it’s a smile nonetheless.

“Fitz says that maybe you can help us”

“Whatever you need…”

“It’s late. We’ll have someone give you a bunk and you need to rest. We’ll need your help”

Daisy nods and May stands up.

“And…” Melinda starts “we don’t know how long you’ll be here so… there’s… “ She says and then stops for a moment “Tomorrow will be a big day. You could actually use a good night’s sleep,” She says before leaving.

 

* * *

 

That night she can barely sleep.

For some reason it always comes down to Ward. It could be just a coincidence though. The amount of places she could have ended up in is infinite; in two of them they have a… thing.

Three if she counts her own world.

Not like they had a thing.

It’s complicated.

They’re married here. This Daisy actually married him, and the way he looked at her… it’s actually not that different from the previous world, or her own.

Part of her is starting to doubt that this is even real. She needs answers. She’s only gotten some pieces. Coulson was taken by… someone and there’s something up with Steve Rogers. Her counterpart from this world went back with a mission too.

The first time she landed in the past, it was the wrong past but it was still her past in a way, now trying to get back to her present she ended up somewhere else, but maybe the time is still right. They need to figure out how it works if she wants to go back to her people and if they want to find the other Daisy. She’s probably happy, with this life. This Daisy has love.

Well, she does have Lincoln and she’s happy too, right?

She closes her eyes, but it’s like she’s having nightmares again.

She hears a baby crying?

She’s really trying to sleep, and actually succeeds for a few hours, but then she hears it again. Checking her wristwatch reveals that’s only 3 in the morning, but still something pushes her out of the bed.

The sound leads her to a familiar room, her room, or at least it is her room in her world. Part of her feels what’s waiting on the other side of that door, and part of her hopes that this is still a nightmare.

She opens, and there he is, with a baby in his arms.

“Oh God” She says

She can see that Grant needs a minute to realize that she’s not the same person he’s hoping to see “Hey…” He says, still trying to calm the baby “I…”

“Don’t say anything”

“Did she wake you? We were- I’m sorry, she’s been…”

She looks down and takes a deep breath “She misses her mom?”

“I guess”

She should leave. She needs to leave right now.

“I’m sorry. May said that it wasn’t a good idea, it’s-“

“Weird. I know. I guess I was going to find out sooner or later” She walks closer “What’s her name?”

“Leah” He says.

And Daisy’s staring. The baby looks so small in Grant’s arms “How old is she?”

“11 months” He says, still trying to calm her down, making cute faces at her, playing with her little fingers”

“Do you think-… do you need some help?”

“You don’t have to”

She’s clearly not thinking because the next moment she’s right there next to Grant “I can try”

Grant looks at the baby and then nods, carefully placing the girl in Daisy’s arms. He takes a moment to look at her closely. She’s just… the same, she’s even got the short hair, and her eyes are the same, and her smile…

“Come in here baby” She says in such a sweet voice that Grant wants to cry… again.

It’s been three months, three months without her.

The baby is staring at Daisy, moving her little fist to her mouth and she seems a little surprised. She’s calming down.

“You could say that I’m your aunt, or something like that, right?” Daisy says, pressing the baby against her chest “It’s ok, your mom is going to be back soon” She feels a knot forming in her throat as she speaks.

She never considered having children, she never thought about starting a family of her own because how could she be a mother? And this life was cruel and dangerous and full of lies and death and so many bad things…

“Maybe I should go” She says, the baby has calmed down and she has a tight grip on Daisy’s shirt.

“I’m sorry,” He says.

“It’s ok, I just…” She hands Leah back to Grant and the baby tries to protests but she ignores it. “I…”

“It’s ok. Thank you” He says, cradling the baby against his chest again.

And then Daisy leaves, she practically runs out of the room and back to hers as the tears start rolling down her cheeks. She has to put her hand against the wall because she feels as if she’s going to fall. This is… crazy, it’s even worst than the previous world.

Leah takes a lot after Grant, but she has her eyes, she looks like her, she feels…. like she’s hers, and she’s probably going crazy here because that’s not her baby, and that’s not her Grant Ward.

Her Grant Ward is gone, he was never like this.

* * *

 

At least the next morning she has plenty of things to do, being busy helps, she doesn’t want to think about last night and she needs to know what’s happening here.

May’s acting as a commander of this base, and while Coulson is gone Victoria Hand is in charge of SHIELD.

“The office looks just the same” Daisy says, leaning against Coulson’s desk while May hands her a file, then she turns on the wall mounted monitor. “What’s this?”

“Daisy’s mission” May says “She went back to try to avoid the Inhuman outbreak and the Sokovian accords crisis. We were hopping to be able to save a lot of people, especially Jiaying and Steve Rogers”

“Captain America is dead?”

“Hydra took advantage of the situation, brainwashed a CIA agent, one that was very close to him and they made it look that it was all part of the fight, now Tony Stark went into hiding and the world is more vulnerable than ever. The Avengers are done”

“That… didn’t happen in my world, at least not yet” Daisy says as she reads the files “My mom died, and then Ultron happened but not all of this, this is… the Avengers went to war against each other here”

“We used an Inhuman to send Daisy back just like you did. We thought that maybe there was a way to prevent things but Fitzsimmons say that according to this theory even if something changed that will just create another ramification f reality in the past and wont alter our present”

“I kind of put that together” Daisy says and then leaves the folder on the desk.

“The best we can do now is try to protect people, help Coulson, hope that Daisy comes back somehow. The world needs her team now more than ever”

“How’s that going?”

“They’re almost ready. When Daisy left Ward took over, he convinced Lincoln Campbell to join too”

“And all that while raising a baby. Impressing”

May frowns “You know”

“Yeah. Just when I thought that I had seen everything” Daisy says and lets out a deep breath.

“How bad is he, in your world?”

“Very bad. It just… escalated really fast. He became the head of Hydra and now… it’s really hard to explain”

“Try me”

“First I need to know if you have something…”

 

* * *

 

“So the monolith is a portal to another world,” Fitz says excitedly and Simmons smiles. “Unbelievable”

“Not like anyone dared to touch that thing” Simmons adds, placing Daisy’s transportation device in a scanner.

“And you shouldn’t! especially you!” Daisy warns, “May’s on it and I gave her some information about it, but that thing is dangerous. The… monster that lives on the other side, that can never come here”

“Well, thank you for the advice”

“It’s probably better if we destroy it” Fitz adds

“Uhm… not just yet” Daisy smiles, then she decides to change the subject “… I heard that there’s going to be a mission to save Coulson” She asks and the couple of scientists nod in perfect sync. “You think I should ask May to join?” Now they move their heads at the same time to look at her. “I mean you could use the help and I just feel like I need something to do, I don’t know, something to feel a little bit normal”

“I don’t think we want you accidentally getting hurt here,” Simmons says

“Plus, we don’t know what other things you know that might be different here” Fitz finishes and Daisy just goes back to staring at them.

Then Ward joins them in the lab. “Hi”

“Hey there” Daisy says “Where’s Leah?” She asks and Fitz almost drops his tablet.

“She’s with Bobbi and Hunter” He smiles “How’s it going here? Any progress?”

“Uhm…eh… well, we’re just trying to figure out if there’s some sort of energy frequency that we can track back to Daisy’s reality, sort of the way we were able to follow Gordon’s teleportation powers, but a little more complicated” Fitz says, going back to his tablet to check his data.

“Yeah just a little” Jemma adds, “We’re putting in time variables and considering the quantum theory…”

“Ok, ok…” Ward lifts his hand “I get it”

“We just need to figure out how it works, maybe we’ll be able to find Daisy, our…Daisy”

Grant smiles at that.

“We’re doing everything we can” Fitz says.

 

* * *

 

 

But a week later, there’s still no progress. Daisy could send another signal to her team and try to go back but she might end up somewhere else, and just keep jumping from place to place.

So she has spent the whole week with this team, and things feel kind of normal sometimes, it’s hard to remember that this is not where she should be; it’s hard not to smile when Grant plays with Leah in the living room and then he invites her to join them for a movie and then the baby crawls over her lap, giggling.

Everybody sees what’s happening and they’re just ignoring it.

“Can I ask you something?” She says, holding the baby in her arms. Grant nods “How did you decide it? To have a baby”

He chuckles and then fixes his gaze on the coffee table “We didn’t. It was kind of an accident. It happened after Puerto Rico, the birth control failed and Daisy… Skye at the time, she was so scared. We didn’t know if it could affect the baby, the transformation. Fitz and Simmons ran a million of tests, we considered all the options, but we decided to keep her” Then he looks at her “The day Leah was born, I had never seen Daisy that happy” He says with a sad smile “She told me that we were the family she always dreamed with”

“I’m really sorry, I’m sure she’ll find a way back. I mean I know her better than anyone” She tries to smile but she feels like she’s about to cry.

“I know” He says, but at this point he doesn’t sound so convinced “I wanted to go after her, but I can’t leave Leah”

“I get it, you don’t have to feel bad about it”

“It’s just- these days with you here have been really complicated” He swallows “I mean, don’t take it wrong”

“I’m not taking it wrong” She says, trying to avoid his eyes, playing with Leah’s little fingers, but the baby is too focused on the tv “Tell me about your wedding” She changes the subject and it pays off when Grant smiles again.

“There’s not a lot to say about it. We kind of eloped during a mission in Miami, we disappeared for a couple of days and then went to Vegas to get married. Coulson was not happy about that”

She laughs with him, rests her head against her hand that’s leaning against the back of the couch. “I can see that happening”

“I wanted to give her something better to be honest, but she wanted it”

“I never had like a dream wedding thing, I never thought about it, or kids” She smiles at Leah “I think she was very happy that day”

“Well, maybe that’s because the other me is kind of an idiot. I mean the reason why you didn’t-”

“I got that” She finally allows herself to look at him “You know I always thought that maybe if he would have come to me I would have done something, I would have… I don’t know, things could have been different. I guess in my world I was not good enough”

“Hey, the decision that I made was not an easy one. I never… I didn’t want him to die, I thought that we could still save his life, that was all, and then things got complicated and then, what he did… I was so scared. I thought that I couldn’t protect her, that if I said anything he would find a way the hurt her just to prove his point”

“It worked out in the end”

“Yeah. It did”

There’s a brief moment of silence and she tries to look down at the baby. “It’s late” She says.

“Yeah”

“Come on baby, you have to go back with your daddy” She says in a soft voice, holding Leah in her arms and then handing her to Grant carefully. “There you go. You’re so pretty, the prettiest baby I’ve ever seen” She smiles and Leah giggles in return.

“You ok?” He asks, cradling the baby against his chest and Daisy has to look down and swallow that feeling.

“Yep. I’m just tired”

“Good night, then”

“Good night, Grant” She says and then strokes the baby’s head gently “Good night, Leah”

 

* * *

 

 

A couple of days later she’s back at the lab with Fitz and Simmons, like every damn day.

“You know. I’ve heard that Coulson is being transferred in two weeks. Maybe they’ll plan a rescue mission”

“You heard?” Simmons asks, focused on a computer simulation.

“A bird told me,” Daisy says and then both scientists look at her skeptically. “I might have hacked into some reports”

“Well, I hope they actually do something” Fitz says, “It’s been too long”

“Yeah, too long” Daisy replies absentmindedly, staring at her own nails, sitting next to one of the lab’s desks. “I want to go”

Fitz chuckles “It’s two weeks from now, we’re actually very close here. We’re feeling pretty positive-“

“Pretty positive? You know I’ve been here for almost two weeks, your Daisy’s been stuck somewhere for months. You might actually start thinking about facing the facts”

“Which facts?” Fitz asks.

“You’re the genius. Maybe this doesn’t have a solution, maybe that’s just how it is and there’s no way to control the landing, there’s no point!” Daisy says.

“And what are you saying? You’re just going to give up?”

“I’m saying that I’m here” She looks at them, their bewildered expressions. “I’m saying that maybe it happened for a reason. If she doesn’t go back… Leah will grow up without a mother. I know what that feels like”

“She has Ward” Fitz says “And us…”

“Yeah, but none of you are her mother!”

“You are not her mother either!” Simmons states.

Daisy opens her mouth to reply but the words just don’t come out. She doesn’t have anything to say to that. Simmons is right.

So she just gets up and leaves.

“Wait…” Simmons says.

“Daisy!” Fitz continues “That was great, that was really nice, Jemma”

“You know that I’m right”

“Maybe. But…” He turns to face Simmons “What if she’s right too?”

“Ugh, stop talking nonsense. We’ll find a way to-“

“We might not”

“We always do, Fitz” She goes back to the computer “As much as we all want to believe that she’s our Daisy, she isn’t.. We can’t just abandon her”

“What about Leah?”

Simmons turns to Fitz again “We are going to bring her mother back!”

 

* * *

 

 

Daisy storms inside Coulson’s office without even knocking. He finds May, Lance and Bobbi inside, they all look at her, startled by her sudden irruption.

“Something wrong?” May asks calmly.

“I know that there has to be some kind of plan to rescue Coulson. I want in”

May looks at the other agents “We’re not going to need your help”

“I can do anything”

“That op is still going to take some time to prepare and execute, you might not even be here by then”

“Maybe I will. I’m just… I’m going crazy here, I need to feel useful or do something”

“Agents Morse, Hunter, could you please give me a minute?”

“Yes sir” Hunter says and then they both leave.

"Sit down” May orders and Daisy just obeys, sitting on front of the senior agent. “What is this really about?”

“I want to help”

“Is this about Ward?”

She wants to say no but she knows that May can see through it.

“I know it has to be really hard for you”

“Understatement of the year” Daisy says.

“You told me everything that happened, but you didn’t tell me what happened between you two”

Daisy frowns “Really?, because there’s nothing you hate more than knowing about our personal stuff”

“I’ll make an exception”

A sigh “Well, Daisy and I, we’re the same, so draw your own conclusions from there”

“You and Ward were together?”

“For about 10 minutes”

“It still affects you”

“It didn’t. Not until I had to see him back in the other world, and now here, with a freaking baby no less! It’s like I’m stuck in a tale of ghosts of Wards past or some bullshit. It’s driving me insane! I just keep thinking about the things I did, and the things I didn’t do and how I could have… now I can’t”

“Maybe what’s best is that you spend some time away from the base. Until we can figure everything out. I can give you some work to keep you busy”

“I would appreciate that, really”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, what you have been through would be enough to drive anyone crazy, what happened in your world was not your fault. It’s just how things were supposed to go”

“Wow…I guess I was the lucky one”

“I’ll talk to Mack and we’ll get you out of-“

May is speaking when she’s cut off but a flicker in the lightning, followed by a complete blackout.

“What’s going on?” Daisy asks and then they feel a strong rumble that shakes the entire base. May immediately looks at Daisy “Woah, don’t look at me, it’s not… me” She says as a thought crosses her mind.

“Let’s go!” May orders, and the two women run out of the office.

 

* * *

 

They see agents running to the hangar and they follow them.

What they find is a crowd of agents, technicians, mechanics and the whole base personnel gathered around something.

And that something happens to be Simmons and Lincoln putting an unconscious Daisy on a stretcher.

Grant runs past them a second later.

“Daisy!” He says and grabs her hand. She’s wearing their wedding ring. “It’s her, right?, Simmons?”

“We’ll have to wait until she wakes up” Lincoln says “She seems fine, there’s no sign of injuries or concussion, so it wont take long”

“Make room, people, please!” Jemma orders as they take their Daisy to the medical room. Grant follows them.

“It seems like she’s back” May says.

 

* * *

 

 

Daisy is standing outside, looking at them through the glass walls, wondering if it’s ok to go in.

“I’m sorry about this morning,” Jemma says, she didn’t even notice that the scientist was standing next to her. “I know it’s really complicated for you”

“It’s not complicated, I was being an idiot. I’m glad she’s here”

“I know our Daisy, and if you’re anything like her I know it must have been really hard-“

“I’m ok, Jemma. I just hope she knows something that can get me back home”

Simmons nods.

“I’m gonna go inside for a minute” Daisy says and then opens the door. Grant smiles at her.

“This is kind of surreal” He says looking at her then back at Daisy, on the bed.

“Tell me about it. I can’t believe she even got the same stupid haircut”

“It was-“

“Practical. I know, more comfortable, maybe, but still” She whines.

“It’s nice,” He says, stroking his wife’s cheek gently, then her hair “You two still look beautiful”

And that’s when she starts moving, first her fingers, then her head.

“Hey, baby, you’re home. Are you awake?”

“Grant…” she says and then clears her throat as she starts opening her eyes.

“Yeah. I’m right here. You came back. I’ve missed you so much”

Daisy smiles but then she sees it, out of the corner of her eye, someone else is there. She moves her head “Oh no…”

“No, no! You’re at the right place. I’m the visitor here”

Daisy reaches for Grant’s hand, touches his wedding ring “Leah?”

“Yeah. She’s here. You’re here. It’s ok”

“Maybe I should just leave you guys alone”

“Thanks. I’m gonna see you in a minute, ok?” Grant says and then she leaves “What’s wrong?” He asks to his wife when he sees her troubled expression.

“I know this might sound hard to believe but I just came from a different world, and it was… almost the same but they were waiting for their Daisy to come back”

“Yeah. She explained us how it works. We know you couldn’t go back to the past”

“Grant, in that world it was different with us”

“I’m the bad guy. I know”

“He’s dead! He’s… something got inside him.”

Grant reaches for her face, wipes a few tears with his thumbs.

“I need to talk to her, and I need to talk to Fitzsimmons, I know how to send her back”

“You just need to rest, you have all the time in the world, ok?” He says and kisses her hands “I love you”

“I love you too”

 

“I’m going to get Leah” Grant says and then kisses his wife’s forehead before leaving

 

* * *

 

It’s not until that night that Daisy meets her counterpart again. She’s down at the shooting range when the other Daisy finds her. She can almost feel her presence.

“You know that no one knows you better than I do, right?” She asks.

Daisy takes off her ear protection gear and turns around “I was just giving you space with your family, and some time to rest. In fact you shouldn’t be down here”

“You’ve been through it, you know that I’m fine”

And then there’s a brief silence.

“Gosh, this is really weirder than the last time, at least she looked like the old me, and I could call her Skye. How are we going to call each other?”

“I think that’s not really important. Wanna come with me? We need to talk”

“Oh… of course, yeah” Daisy says and leaves her equipment there, following the other Daisy through the corridors.

They go to Coulson’s office. There’s no one there and Daisy is starting to feel a little anxious, even guilty.

The other Daisy sits on the couch.

“I’m sorry” She says, still standing up “I’ve been here just for a few weeks but it’s been way too weird and I… don’t want you to think that I was trying to replace you or something but it’s true that I didn’t want to go until we knew that you were going to come back, I just… I couldn’t leave Leah alone. I told that to Simmons, and I know that it might have been a little over the line”

“Wow… that’s… a lot”

“I felt like I had to do something. I know it sounds stupid”

“Please sit down”

“I’m really sorry I don’t want you to think-“

“Hey!” Daisy smiles and grabs her wrist “It’s ok, just sit down, stop saying that you’re sorry. I don’t want to talk to you about that”

And then she sits.

“And by the way, I really appreciate it. I think I would do the exact same thing if I were you” They both chuckle at that “My daughter is the most important thing in my life, I would never want her to grow up without a mother I understand why you felt like that” She takes a moment “And saying it out loud does sound weird”

Daisy nods at that.

“I just wanted to talk you about your world. You’ve probably heard that Fitzsimmons figured it out. They sent me here and they know how to get you back”

Daisy nods again.

“But there’s one thing that I didn’t tell them. I saw him”

“Before you say anything else, in our world is different”

“Is it? I went to 3 different places, and for some reason things were not that different in any of those worlds”

“Oh really? So I guess he was a crazy, psychopathic murderer in every world that then became a space zombie. You know… normal stuff”

“Have you seen him? I mean up close”

“Yeah, not that handsome anymore, right?”

“Is that all?”

Daisy doesn’t have an answer for that, so the other woman continues, “I think is still there, somewhere”

Daisy closes her eyes “Please don’t do this”

“You have to do something”

“No” Daisy says and then stands up again “I know that-“

“He could have killed me, and he didn’t!” The woman insists, “He saved my life, and he knew that there was something different with me he was… suffering”

Daisy is shaking her head, looking exasperated “You saw what you wanted to see. Your Ward is nothing like mine, you think that he was like your husband and you want to believe that he’s good like him but he’s not, even if he’s there, he’s just as bad as that… monster!”

“And you ever tried doing something about it?”

A pause.

Daisy finally looks at the woman sitting in front of her again, she’ve been trying not to do that because she just doesn’t want to go _there_. She looks the same, they’re basically the same, how’s that she was different? How’s that she was enough?

“Neither did he” She finally says.

“Hoping for something and loosing it hurts more than never hoping for anything”

Daisy just stares when she hears it. If her counterpart is trying to make a point here she’s kind of pouring salt in her wounds.

“I was wrong” the other woman continues, “I think it’s worst if you sit back and do nothing, when you could have”

“The only thing I can do know is go back to my world and finish my mission there”

“Daisy…”

“Thank you for the talk” She says and then leaves the office.

 

* * *

 

 

The next day she’s back at the lab.

Fitzsimmons are running some final tests before sending her back home. They look pretty excited, babbling about things that she doesn’t understand, but she doesn’t remember seeing her own Fitz and Simmons this happy in a long time. She really misses that.

“This has to work, it will work” Fitz promises. He’s holding in his hands a device that looks like the one she used to send the sign to her team, only bigger, and with some wiring sticking out of it.

“This actually groundbreaking, we have a way to track and differentiate worlds”

“If this is all possible how is anything really true?” Daisy asks. “I mean I could just go to a world where Shield doesn’t even exist and that will be real, I could go to a world where I’m still with my parent, I could go anywhere and my world wouldn’t even matter there”

“But it matter to you, because it’s yours” Ward says from the door. None of them had noticed him standing there “Could you guys give me a minute?”

The scientists nod at the same time and then leave the lab.

“So you’re leaving” He says and Daisy nods with a hint of a smile. “Daisy told me…”

She raises her eyebrows “So you’re that kind of couple” She crosses her arms and leans against Fitz’ desk “Look. It’s not a big deal I have a mission, and I ‘ve moved on. Things just… happened that way for a reason and there’s nothing I can about it. I have a duty to protect the people, and I’m ok, really. I have the team, and Lincoln-“

“Lincoln?”

“He’s my boyfriend… in my world”

“Oh. I knew it!”

“What?”

“I knew he had a crush on you when we met him, I mean… Daisy, I told her!”

She almost chuckles at that, because Ward totally seems to be jealous now “It’s a different world”

“I guess it’s not that different then” He jokes but she still looks distraught. “Look, I made that decision because I thought that I could fix everything, save him, still protect the team and make them understand, maybe even help him. Now I know that he didn’t deserve it, but back then… I wanted to die when he did, and I know that it could have gone either way”

“I… think that I understand, that’s not the problem, that fact that I get it doesn’t change anything, doesn’t bring innocent people back to life”

“You’re right, and maybe I shouldn’t be doing this because… well, we’re talking about some version of me, but if I know something is that you were always better than all of us, just… trust your gut, you can’t go wrong, I know that you’ll do the right thing”

“I will” She says in a tern tone. “I’ll protect the people that I have to protect”

They both hear someone clearing his throat, it’s Fitz that it’s just entering the lab “I’m sorry… I didn’t- We’re ready. Everything is ready”

“Do you want to say goodbye to Leah?” Grant changes the subject.

“Maybe I shouldn’t. We just have to be done with this”

 

* * *

 

 

“You know how it works we need to replicate the quantized field at the same frequency that I marked”

“Yeah… just that” Daisy jokes and Fitz smiles.

“It’s that simple” He says.

“It works like a portal, but instead of… one door to go through, you have an infinite amount of them” Simmons adds with a excited smiles “We just had to find the right one, as each world has a signature field of energy”

“Ok, ok, maybe we should just do it…” Daisy interrupts and gets inside the secure room, it looks a lot like the one back at her base.

The rest of the team has joined them and they’re all waiting, even Ward is still there, except Daisy.

“Thanks for everything guys. I could have never done this without you”

“You have to than for this a couple of geniuses that we’ve heard a lot of” Fitz says “I bet they’re quite smart and resourceful”

She finally laughs at that “They are”

Just when they are about to secure the room the other Daisy appears, she’s holding Leah in her arms.

“Hey, you were not going to say goodbye?”

“Oh... I’m sorry, about that and… everything”

“Yeah” The woman says “I know. I get it. Just be safe… go back with your family, take your time” She smiles.

Daisy smiles back. She looks at the baby. It’s weird that just a couple of days ago she was thinking that she could stay here. Leah looks confused; she holds onto her mom and hides from the woman that looks like her.

It’s a good thing that this world’s Daisy came back. This is not her life, it could never be.

“I should go, I think that Leah is freaking out a bit” She smiles.

Fitz and Simmons are joined by Mack, the three of them adjust the last details while Daisy gets back inside the room, securing the door behind her.

The last thing she sees is Grant holding his family in his arms.

“I’m ready!” She yells, and she really wants this to be over.

She’s familiar with the strange feeling by now, the dizziness and the pain, but it’ll be quick. She’ll be back to finish her mission in her own present.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, it took me some time but I wanted to decide what to do with this. Since the first part got some positive feedback I decided to write two more, so this is the middle instalment and the next one will be the last one. I had to let you know what happened after the last cliffhanger, right? hahaha please let me know what you think!


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